


Why I Ship ArmorEngineer

by FourAlignments



Series: Musing and Analysis Of Star Trek [1]
Category: Star Trek: Enterprise
Genre: Asexual Relationship, Asexual representation, Asexuality, Character Analysis, Dominic Keating, Essays, Fandom Meta-Freeform, M/M, Meta, Non-fic, OpEd, Part Personal essay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-05
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:08:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,582
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27898846
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FourAlignments/pseuds/FourAlignments
Summary: Why ArmorEngineer aka the pairing of Malcom Reed and Charles "Trip" Tucker III means so much to me as an asexual.This is not fanfiction, its a meta or essay about Star Trek.Curse Ao3 and confusing insert photo and gif!
Relationships: Malcolm Reed/Charles "Trip" Tucker III
Series: Musing and Analysis Of Star Trek [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2042929
Comments: 16
Kudos: 12





	Why I Ship ArmorEngineer

**Author's Note:**

> Enjoy the read!

I do have to admit, when I first watched _Star Trek: Enterprise,_ I didn’t think it was any good. But I had just come off from watching The Next Generation and started going to Deep Space Nine; I have still yet to complete _Deep Space Nine_ despite having all the time in the world to do so because of COVID. I thought initially, it wasn’t bad as fandom made it out to believe, but I was still the phase of the Next Generation being the best Star Trek show and read many of the books like _Before Dishonor_ , _Greater Than the Sum_ , and _Resistance;_ I was really into the TNG fandom at that point.

I was ready to give up Star Trek because I despised the discourse surrounding Trek in general and the inability fandom to think critically and perhaps say maybe old Trek wasn’t as good as fans made it out to be, that it was totally without flaws---may I point to “Spock’s Brain,” “Code of Honor,” “Threshold,” “And The Children Shall Lead,” and “Move Along Home.”

Don’t touch the sacred cow known as TNG; or be prepared to be roasted. Which I had the unfortunate experience of doing so. That and reading this essay: _Let's See What's Out There, Part IV: Keep Flying_. I couldn’t look at TNG the same way after reading that essay. I couldn’t return to the TNG fandom. I didn’t necessary ship any of the characters together. I just felt TNG didn’t even need shipping; the character interactions and the actors’ chemistry made romance kind of unnecessary; it made TNG unique in my mind. I understood with Troi and Riker, but with Picard and Beverly I didn’t get the appeal at all.

  
Around the time Star Trek: Discovery was coming on; I gave Enterprise another go, upon reading on TV Tropes that Malcolm Reed was gay or least Dominic Keating saying “I played him gay!” Re-watching Enterprise, I came to appreciate what the show was. I enjoyed just how human the human characters are. Just how poignant the character’s flaws were; Captain Archer, Commander Tucker, and Lt. Malcolm Reed; they didn’t get along with one another, and had a tendency to snipe at each other. They weren’t saints and they had a long road getting from there to here. They were still growing. It was very refreshing after the sterile and stagnate environment of the Enterprise-D, where the characters did move on or rank up. Even Captain Kirk became an Admiral.

Now getting to as to why I ship the two Disaster Twins together. Around this about the time, I was discovering my own sexuality and was off at University. I finally understood the subtexts of Dominic Keating’s acting. “Subtext layered upon subtext.” As Trip said in Shuttlepod One. Despite the best efforts of Rick Berman and Brannon Braga to tell the audience that Malcolm was heterosexual at every possible moment. Because, dammit, there's nothing gay about this! Which made Malcolm’s character seem gayer. If that was even possible.

The summer before I started University, I found out that I was asexual. I was still in the closet, I hadn’t come out to my parents and I wanted to learn more, so I immediately joined my university’s LGBT+/Pride group on campus and made many friends. Since then, I found out more about Asexuality and the aro-ace spectrum. I am an Aro-Flux Panromantic Asexual.

At University, I started to date, after some very bad high school experiences like being stalked twice; tried being courted by a guy, that my sister just broke up with; a guy who played Cyrano type scheme on me aka he catfished me and pretended that another guy, that I had a crush at the time said liked me; another guy, who was well-known player, wanted to date me. High school was terrible and I didn’t want to date for a very long while afterwards.

But I started to do online dating, especially on asexual dating sites. (For the respective of this essay, I will be using a pseudonym for my friend’s confidentiality and privacy). Where I met Daniel, who was from England. We chatted for a few months and quickly became fast friends. Daniel is the sweetest guy, I’ve ever met; we could talk for hours and not get bored; he has this very calming and smooth voice, I could listen to; just talking to him made my day brighter; He was the first good relationship that I had. He does mean a lot to me. He is my best friend.

Though we have broken up, we’re still friends through. Power of friendship, Y’all! We’ve started to date other people; it speaks volume to our friendship and maturity. For me, it stung for a while, but before long and with some hindsight It was a little downgrade, that’s it.

This relationship means so much to me that I want to base my future relationships from. Because I think it’s a good template and our friendship is a good four years strong, and we still haven’t met in person. Hopefully, after this pandemic we can, after he gets more vacation time; we are going to hug. 

To me a relationship is a connection between two people; so, I find it mindboggling that friendship isn’t consider a relationship. Our relationship, what I would describe as an intense friendship with some romantic elements; it was a QPR or a queerplatonic relationship.

What does this have to do with ArmorEngineer? Well, as I re-watched Enterprise, I really identify with Trip and Malcolm’s friendship. One, I am from the American South and my friend Daniel is from England; both Trip and Malcolm are from those respective countries. Second, Trip and Malcolm both have a similar dynamic and are personalities our similar, Trip and I wear our hearts on our sleeves and both Malcolm and Daniel are tad shy. Third, since it was a ten-to-nine-hour trip to England on a student’s budget, I was not going to see Daniel anytime soon. So, I used this pairing as a self-narrative therapy.

What I mean by this, in article titled “The Sweet Science of Shipping” the author, Maggie Owens went to interview Dr. Lynn Zubernis, a psychologist, says why we ship as lovemaps. Lovemaps a term first popularized by well-known sexologist John Money; described as blueprints for ideal romantic and erotic situations. They specify the physical and emotional attributes we hope for in romantic partners, including appearance, personality, and general disposition.

“It’s all about identity exploration,” Lynn says. “We’re all going around looking for depictions of our own romantic, sexual and emotional fantasies. Shipping is a self-narrative therapy.” When you ship characters, you’re identifying, creating or rooting for a fictional relationship that helps you pinpoint your own romantic desires.”

That’s what makes this pairing so important to me.

But, on a more character/actor level, I really do enjoy the chemistry between Connier Trienner and Dominic Keating. The two gel so well, it comes out in their performances together. Trip is the yang to Malcolm’s yin. Though out the show, the only person that Malcolm truly connects with is Trip. I think for a multiplied of reasons. One, both Malcolm and Trip have a lot of crossover in the Engineering and Armory, so I can imagine the two working on projects together. Second, their respective personalities play off one another. Third, Malcolm, though he may not say it out loud, but he cared deeply about Trip like for instance when Lizzy died. Despite Trip’s constant snap at him. He did want Trip to go through the grief process and accept her death by suggesting that he go to the memorial and coming with him to see the Trip’s hometown in Florida inspecting the damage. In the episode, The Forgotten, where Trip and Malcolm must fix the warp plasma EPS conduit, and Malcolm’s environmental suit cannot protect him the rising temperature, and nearly dies of overheating. Afterwards, Trip lashes out verbally at Degra, when he says he hopes Reed survives as Trip rushes Malcolm to sickbay.

I firmly believe that Malcolm was flirting with Trip in the episode the Catwalk, where Trip, Malcolm, Mayweather, and Hoshi are playing poker together. The two were having a blast with installing the phasers in Silent Enemy, getting all hot and sweaty together. Shuttlepod One aka the gayest episode of Enterprise, which forces Malcolm to connect with Trip on a more personal level, even more than Archer in the episode Minefield.

What is with the two and getting stuck in small crafts

Malcolm is a very repressed gay man, who’s in the closet with a bolted down door with blast shielded plating. Has some very low opinion of himself, he’s not sacrificing idiot for nothing that Trip calls him out for; an internalized homophobia and constant denial about his own sexuality and feelings about his self-worth. That wasn’t helped by his family, epically his father, Stuart, who makes Robert Picard look like Bob Ross. I imagined they were very conservative and he if didn’t fit this strict mold of what it meant to be a Reed Man. Which isn’t helped by his allergies, weak immune system, and other health problems. But Trip helps him open up and explore his feelings and issues with his family in a better manner; emotional support is what this English Muffin needs, and hugs, and cuddling.

Though I think Hoshi does make for a good friend as well; like a brotherly-sister relationship; that reminds Malcolm of his sister, Maddy, who the only family member that supports his decisions and sexuality. The two share a special kinship of being severally underestimated and underutilized by Archer and in his shadow in forming the Federation. Archer wouldn’t make it pass the first year if it wasn’t for theses two backing him up; and Trip and T’Pol. Though I can imagine Captain Philippa Georgiou and Captain Gabriel Lorca; these two being their respective heroes; and for Lorca, perhaps is related to Malcolm Reed in some relation. 

Asexual-Aromatic Malcolm Reed should be more of a thing in Star Trek: Enterprise fandom. It’s even Dominic Keating’s pet theory that Malcolm is Asexual. Bless him! For that, so he said it, now it is canon! It does mean the world to me as an asexual, that doesn’t get much attention in pop culture. Often the characters who get casted on the aro-ace spectrum are either villains or non-human characters, which is a problem in and of itself, if a character is coded that way. Now with its own trope name: “Villainous Aromantic Asexual”; following the not so great tropes such as “Depraved Homosexual”, “Psycho Lesbian,” and “Depraved Bisexual.” In the villainous asexual rouge gallery are such characters as: Joffrey Baratheon (GoT), Vargas (Thunderball), V.M. Varga (Fargo), Psycho Mantis (Metal Gear Solid), Lord Voldmort (Harry Potter) Fuck you Rowling, and Lord Dominator (Wander Over Yonder).

In a world that made sense LGBT+ relationships would be seen as normal and nothing out of the ordinary; not a big deal, in media wouldn’t make a big deal out of any LGBT+ relationships of any kind. The curse of heteronormality continues!

I don’t know what is worse? Evil villain or perceived as ‘broken’?

How about neither? 

But times are changing. Hopefully. This why representation matters, folks. With Artemis from Percy Jackson; Voo Doo from Sirens (US); Todd from BoJack Horseman; Peridot from Steven Universe; I walked out of Frozen 2 saying Elsa is asexual, especially after that childhood flashback scene with Elsa and Anna.

It’s easy to read Malcolm as an aro-ace character with him being very dedicated to his job, connecting with Trip through various work-related activates; not having luck with romantic encounters. Who needs cake, when you have explosions and grilled pineapple? Dude must be committed foodie if he gets regular injections to have pineapple. Makes me wonder if he grew up not allowed sweets and chocolate at home. After one of his Aunts went to Hawaii and sent back Maui Gold Pineapple fresh and with transportation technology got to England faster. To him it was the best thing ever, before going into anaphylaxis shock and frantic trip to the hospital.

Despite, Enterprise’s shortcomings and Rick Berman’s handling of the Trek franchise, in all honestly holding it back in my opinion with his shitty beliefs and general approach of not taking any risks unless his feet were held against the proverbial fire or the DS9 writers just not telling him. While I think writers did unbeknownst to them, by writing a lack of romantic, actually made Malcom Reed come off as a aromatic or asexual, or a bit of both; I am taking representation whenever I can take it; especially in Star Trek.

But his aro-ace background can also play a part in his relationship with Trip, with them trying to figure out what they want their relationship to be. Again, cuddles and dinner dates! Oh, the possibilities! This avenue can be explored in fanfiction and fandom. I think some cute and informative pieces can come out of this Asexual! Malcolm Reed. The Disaster Twin friendship fits in perfectly with it as well, like them always working on projects together, or having lunch and discussing schematics on weapon systems or improving the warp drive; or even arguing over designs and safety protocols; showing concern over one another. Why do you think Malcolm made all those regulations? It was to make sure stubborn engineers don’t blow themselves up! It sure wasn’t Archer, who wrote all the early Starfleet regulations. 

I don’t want to discount Data (which I see more as an Autistic representation) and Odo, Seven of Nine, and Spock that are often headcanoned as being on the aro-ace spectrum by many fans and can be seen in many fandom spaces like Tumblr and other fan forms like Reddit. But, seeing Aro-ace experiences in typically the “otherness” of non-human characters such as aliens and robots, that don’t quite get the human experiences. Some may consider it problematic. I do hate using that word, since it makes fans go on the defensive. This does have some unfortunate implication. The idea subtly reinforcing the idea that aromatic and asexual by not fitting into the parameters of heteronormality, are somehow less human.

Then there are episodes like “The Outcast”; an episode, that fails so spectrally as an LGBT+ discrimination allegory and as Cracked puts it: “Intended as a condemnation of homophobia, the episode instead comes off as the story of one woman's brave quest for cock in the face of lesbian tyranny." Where there is an entire alien race, the J'naii, a genderless, androgynous race, sees sex and sexual attraction in the context of the narrative is seen as again the villain.

In a way it makes Malcolm Reed, a bit more special in the Star Trek multiverse. As he is human with Dominic Keating’s acting makes Reed, a multifaceted character with his subtle acting. Though he doesn’t show though his words, Malcolm is a sensitive soul, who again cares deeply about his crew and comes though with his actions in protecting the crew, often putting his self-sacrificing self on Doctor Phlox’s regular injury list. His asexuality or perceived asexuality is just part of his character, and not his character in its entirety.

That is why I ship ArmorEngineer and Stan Asexual! And Aromatic! Malcolm Reed.

<http://wrongquestions.blogspot.com/2011/04/lets-see-whats-out-there-part-iv-keep.html>

<https://www.fandom.com/articles/shipping-characters-sweet-science>


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